LED lighting fixtures are increasingly popular alternatives to traditional incandescent and compact florescent lighting. This is likely because of the increased efficiency and much longer life afforded by LEDs when compared to incandescent and even compact florescent alternatives.
However, despite the benefits of LED-based lighting, LED's are more difficult to dim than traditional incandescent lighting. In particular, LED fixtures (which, as used herein, could also refer to LED bulbs for insertion into lamps or lighting devices), generally constructed of a plurality of individual LEDs, are subject to flicker, pixilation (the effect of individual LEDs being visible to an observer of the fixture), and the lack of changes in the color or warmth of the light provided by the fixture as the light output of the LEDs is reduced. Exemplary known systems employ pulse width modulation (PWM) techniques to regulate LEDs strings to produce a dimming effect. However, dimming produced using PWM regulation circuitry is subject to lighting abnormalities and issues with the quality of light produced by the LED. What is needed is a system and method for controlling the output of LED lighting fixtures that applies a warm dimming technique to improve the lighting characteristics as the fixture is dimmed while retaining the efficiency inherent in LED lighting.